Best Employee Recognition Programs in 2024

As companies continue to awaken to the advent of off-the-shelf employee recognition programs, more employee recognition program vendors arise. In 2023, we have seen large vendor mergers. We look to 2024 with the possibility of more programs folding, others merging, and most staying courses.

Scroll down to see the complete list of top employee recognition companies. If you'd like to meet with Recognize, schedule a demo here.

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Importance of Employee Recognition Programs

Employee recognition programs are really important when it comes to employee engagement and employee loyalty. Everyone likes to get appreciated for their hard work and efforts, and the same goes for the employees of a company. When the employees of a company get recognized by the higher-ups, they feel highly valued and appreciated.

They get more engaged with the workplace and become loyal to the company. They also feel highly motivated to keep doing better at their work and feel more driven to bring in good results for the company. As a result, the company experiences huge success and massive growth.

That’s why implementing a proper employee recognition program is really important in your company. Also, make sure to choose a proper name for your awards to make your employees feel more driven to win those awards. This will benefit both your company and the employees.

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    Recognize

    A seamlessly integrated employee recognition & engagement platform inside Outlook, Office 365, Workplace by Facebook, Sharepoint, and more. Recognize's integrations coupled with its feedback-loop builds a habit of recognition in your company. Features include: + Automatic employee anniversary and birthday recognition + On-the-spot social employee recognition + Manager recognition & notifications + Nomination voting + 100+ gift cards & company-managed reward system + Super customizable.

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Rewards
    • Anniversaries
    • Birthdays
    • Nominations
    • Incentives
    • Company rewards system
    • Points optional

    SSO support

    • Lastpass
    • Onelogin
    • Okta
    • Azure
    • Ping Identity
    • SAML 2.0

    HRIS support

    • Any that support sFTP
    • Azure Active Directory
    • Office 365
    • Yammer

    Integrations

    • Office 365
    • Outlook
    • Sharepoint
    • Azure
    • Yammer
    • Workplace by Facebook
    • Slack
    • Chrome
    • Edge
    • TV monitors
    • iOS
    • Android
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    Achievers

    Achievers provides medium-sized to enterprise-class customers with its flagship Employee Success Platform, enabling rewards-based and social recognitions to increase employee engagement and drive business success. Designed specifically to meet the needs of today's workplace, it empowers employees to recognize each other in real time and aligns them to the objectives of the organisation. With more than 5,000,000 annual recognitions, the Platform inspires brilliant performance in 110 countries.

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Rewards
    • Anniversaries

    SSO support

    • SAML 2.0

    HRIS support

    • Any

    Integrations

    • iPhone
    • Android
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    Blueboard

    An employee rewards and recognition platform for the modern workplace. Best Places to Work reward with experiences - they're more memorable, personal and shareable than cash or gift cards. And they have lasting effects on the key metrics you care about - employee engagement, retention, and help to build a more positive company culture. Blueboard's platform makes sending experiences easy (send with just one click!), and our hand-curated catalog is exciting and delightful for your employees.

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Experiential Rewards
    • Anniversary Gifts
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    Bonusly

    Bonusly is a fun, personal recognition & rewards program that enriches your company culture and improves employee engagement. With Bonusly, everyone in your organization can publicly recognize everyone else by giving small bonuses that add up to meaningful rewards. Connect recognition to your core values - Give visibility to everyone's contributions - Integrate with communication tools your employees use every day - Streamline all types of recognition & rewards - Evaluate recognition trends

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Rewards

    SSO support

    • Okta
    • Bitium
    • OneLogin
    • Centrify
    • Open ID
    • PingOne
    • Office365
    • Google
    • LinkedIn
    • Chatter

    HRIS support

    • BambooHR
    • Workday
    • Namely
    • Zenefits
    • ADP
    • UltiPro
    • iSolved

    Integrations

    • Slack
    • Microsoft Teams
    • Google Hangouts
    • Zapier
    • Yammer
    • Igloo
    • Jostle
    • Zoho
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    Briq

    Briq is a customizable SaaS that helps to boost employee engagement while rewarding and recognizing what matters to your business. Thanks to virtual tokens called briqs, HR and managers can encourage, reward and measure engagement and performance, while employees remain motivated on a daily basis. Easy to use, and directly integrated with your existing tools, Briq enriches your company culture and improves employee engagement & recognition.

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Rewards

    Integrations

    • Slack
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    Bucketlist

    Bucketlist is an employee recognition, rewards, and incentive program that employees love to use. Bucketlist personalizes recognition to match the individual needs of the employee. With Bucketlist employees can earn points and redeem them to achieve life goals. Bucketlist is a powerful tool that results in higher employee engagement and lower voluntary turnover and is perfect for mid to large size companies (100 - 5,000 employees). Learn more at bucketlistrewards.com and schedule a demo now!

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Experiential Rewards
    • Anniversaries
    • Recognition

    Integrations

    • Slack
    • G-Suite
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    Fond

    Fond is an employee engagement platform that helps companies attract, retain, and motivate their workforces. Motivated employees are productive employees, and that's why organizations like Salesforce, Delta Dental, and Sephora use Fond. With Fond, you can recognize and reward employees, access exclusive corporate discounts, and measure engagement levels in your organization. Celebrate achievements, inspire employees, and encourage growth with Fond.

    Star rating?

    3.5/5

    Programs

    • Perks
    • Rewards
    • Anniversary Gifts
    • Recognition

    SSO support

    • Okta
    • SAML
    • Google
    • OneLogin
    • PingIdentity

    HRIS support

    • ADP
    • Workday
    • Namely

    Integrations

    • Outlook
    • Gmail
    • Slack
    • Salesforce
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    Kazoo

    Organizations thrive when employees are empowered to take ownership of their work, when they can see the bigger picture, and know how they fit within the collective success of their team and company. Kazoo combines what people want with what companies need in one easy-to-use platform that celebrates every win and brings workplaces to life. Experience the joy of work with Kazoo's unique combination of Recognition & Rewards, Performance Management, and Engagement Surveys. Kazoo was previously YouEarnedIt. YouEarnedIt acquired Highground this year to rebrand and become Kazoo. Why they chose the name Kazoo we'll never know. This does give Kazoo a stronghold in being that go-to jack of all trades solution for both performance management and enterprise employee recognition.

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Rewards

    SSO support

    • AuthO
    • Google
    • Kronos
    • Microsoft
    • Okta

    HRIS support

    • ADP
    • Workday
    • Namely
    • BambooHR
    • SAP Success Factors

    Integrations

    • Salesforce
    • outlook
    • slack
    • yammer
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    Kudos

    Kudos is a corporate social network and peer-to-peer employee recognition system designed to engage your teams with enhanced communication, collaboration, appreciation, and recognition. Kudos is simple, scalable, flexible, effective and affordable. We help clients ranging from 100 to 20,000 users in over 80 countries and 30 verticals. If you care about your team, culture, and communication - Kudos can work for you. To learn more about Kudos check out our website or give us a call!

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Annniversaries
    • Birthdays
    • Rewards

    SSO support

    • Okta
    • Bitium
    • One Login
    • Ping Identity
    • Azure
    • SaaS Pass
    • Yammer
    • LinkedIn
    • Google
    • Microsoft

    HRIS support

    • Workday

    Integrations

    • Slack
    • Sharepoint
    • Gmail
    • Zendesk
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    Motivosity

    Motivosity is an employee recognition software solution. We don't mess around: Our customers experience a 95%+ user engagement rate. Motivosity promotes trust, better connects employees, and makes visible all the great work your team members are doing. We offer free trials and a six-month money-back guarantee. Motivosity is used by companies like HealthCatalyst, BlueHost, Instructure, and Workfront to improve employee engagement and company culture. Take a closer look. #thanksmatters

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Rewards

    SSO support

    • Okta
    • PingIdentity
    • SAML

    HRIS support

    • BambooHR
    • Namify

    Integrations

    • ADFS
    • Slack
    • Vox
    • Sharepoint
    • Bridge by Instructure
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    O.C. Tanner

    O.C. Tanner, the global leader in engaging workplace cultures, helps thousands of top companies create peak moments that inspire people to achieve, appreciate, and thrive at work. Clients use O.C. Tanners Culture CloudTM suite of apps and solutions to retain, engage, and attract talent, inspire innovation, bond teams, drive performance goals, and connect people to company values. O.C. Tanner acquired Kwench this year for an unknown sum. Kwench is a quick riser serving hundreds of companies in India and Asia. This gives O.C. Tanner a strategic advantage in Asia.

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Anniversaries
    • Rewards

    HRIS support

    • Workday
    • ADP
    • SAP Success Factors

    Integrations

    • Virgin Pulse
    • Vitality
    • Outlook
    • Yammer
    • Sharepoint
    • Brightspace
    • Salesforce
    • Oracle Sales Cloud
    • Microsoft
    • Cornerstone
    • Adobe Captivate Prime
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    PerkBox

    HQed in London, Perkbox operates across the globe, enhancing employee experiences through a number of tools and channels. We give teams a huge range of perks and benefits accessible any time via app or desktop. The Perkbox Recognition tool encourages people to celebrate outstanding work, while incentivising high performance. Perkbox Insights is the next generation of employee engagement survey, enabling you to gather and act on employee feedback in a transparent and meaningful way. Our latest product Perkbox Medical is the UK’s simplest and most affordable answer to employee health cover.

    Star rating?

    4.5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Perks
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    Pulse by Mango Apps

    MangoApps is an integrated suite of workplace apps for mid-market companies. It brings together apps like Intranet, workspaces, filesharing, messaging, training, recognition and more into one comprehensive portal making it easy for organizations to create a central location employees go to for fast and seamless access to all the tools they already use. With an intelligent employee platform at its core, MangoApps is designed for & serves organizations with 50-50,000 employees in a broad range of industries.

    Star rating?

    4/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Anniversaries
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    SmartHub by Rewards Gateway

    SmartHub is an all-in-one Employee Engagement Platform to help HR centralise and promote whats important to their organisation. From market-leading employee discounts and perks to reward and recognition, wellbeing and internal communications, SmartHub can be customised with existing (or new) tools to build employee engagement.

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Perks

    SSO support

    • ADFS
    • Okta
    • Microsoft Azure
    • Google
    • SAML
    • LinkedIn

    Integrations

    • Yammer
    • Facebook
    • SFTP
    • Webhooks
    • Google ANalytics
    • RSS Feeds
    • Atom Feeds
    • JSON Feeds
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    StartCherry

    Cherry lets employees choose their own workplace perks. With Cherry, employers cover their employees' favorite consumer services (ex: Netflix, Spotify, ClassPass, Lyft), instead of wasting money on perks no one uses like in-office yoga and ping pong tables.

    Programs

    • Perks

    Integrations

    • Slack
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    TerryBerry

    The 360 Recognition Platform encompasses a peer recognition program, service anniversary awards, achievement awards, and more. Modules work together to help build a culture of recognition in your organization. With 360 Recognition, add as many or as few modules as your needs require. The 360 Integrated Recognition Platform gives you a complete picture of your organization's overall recognition culture, and helps you pinpoint your recognition strengths and opportunities.

    Star rating?

    5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Merchandise Rewards
    • Anniversaries
    • Incentives
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    WorkHuman

    Workhuman® is the world’s fastest-growing integrated social recognition and continuous performance management platform. Our human applications are shaping the future of work by helping organizations connect culture to shared purpose. With a consistent stream of gratitude fueling unparalleled, provocative workplace data and human insights, Workhuman® Cloud is a critical software engine for global companies seeking to motivate and empower their people to do the best work of their lives. Formerly known as Globoforce and now operating as Workhuman® we were founded in 1999 and are located in Framingham, Mass., and Dublin, Ireland. Workhuman was previous Globoforce and has recently rebranded.

    Star rating?

    4.5/5

    Programs

    • Recognition
    • Anniversaries
    • Birthdays
    • Rewards
    • International

Consumer Guide on Choosing the Perfect Platform

Here are some things that you need to look for while choosing the perfect platform for your employee recognition program

Based on Features

While choosing an employee recognition platform, the first thing you need to look for is the features provided by the platform. You will need the help of various features in order to implement a proper and functional employee recognition program at your workplace. There are numerous features that an employee recognition tool can come with, such as program budget management, behavioral email, full rewards catalog, reporting and metrics, employee ideas module, etc. Make sure to choose a platform that provides all the features that you need and prefer to have.

Based on Pricing

Cost or pricing should be one of the primary criteria while choosing an employee recognition platform. You need to plan your budget based on your needs and the size of your company before you invest in a platform. Estimate an amount of how much you are willing to pay for the recognition platform.

Many of the platforms show a lower cost on the paper, even though there are many hidden costs associated with it once you get on board. These can be processing fees, transaction fees, or extra taxes. To avoid that, it’s best if you go for a platform that shows flat and transparent fees. And make sure to go for the ones that have pricing that aligns with your budget perfectly.

Integration

Ongoing program maintenance and complicated tracking aren’t for everyone. Employee recognition should be totally frictionless, and it means the software or app you will implement needs to integrate into the routines of your employees seamlessly. So, make sure that your recognition platform has perfect integration methods to be integrated into the daily tasks and works of the employees, and into the existing system.

Based on User Interaction and User Interface User Interaction and user interface are really important when it comes to choosing an employee recognition platform. Make sure to choose a platform that has a nice and properly usable interface. Also, the user interaction is easy and convenient so that you can easily implement the employee recognition program at your workplace.

HRIS Support

HRIS is also known as the Human Resource Information System. It is an intersection of information technology and human resources through software. This feature allows HR processes and activities to occur easily and conveniently. Various works regarding payroll, human management, etc. can be conducted through this feature. So, you will be easily able to implement a proper employee recognition program if your chosen platform provides HRIS support.

Conclusion

Takeaway

Employee recognition programs are really important to create a productive and positive work environment and a highly engaged workforce. All these things are paramount for the success and growth of your business. Employees get highly encouraged and motivated to do better in their jobs and bring in better results for the company. The more your employees will feel dedicated towards your company, the better results you will achieve.

To increase the dedication and motivation level of your employees, you need to have a proper employee recognition program with a proper name. Having a proper name for the program will make sure that your employees are highly engaged with the program, and are eager to participate in it. They will highly resonate with the program, and in turn, will keep bringing in great results for the company.

Connect with Staff Where they Are

9 out of 10 employees agree, Recognize increases staff retention and employee satisfaction. Plus, automated employee recognition frees up cycles for HR. The secret is connecting with staff where they work no matter what their role is in the company.

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A Jeweler who engages her staff with weekly employee recognition and automated rewards.